One thing you young people will find is that the music you listen to today will help form your memories of tomorrow. I can remember listening to music when I was four. Oddly, they are some of my strongest memories, perhaps because they were reinforced so often. I am sure I listened to “Whispering Hope” sung by Gordon MacRae and Jo Stafford close to a thousand times within a few years. It is still my favorite song, and when I am going through trying times, I will listen to it 5 to 10 times.

The point of my post is that tonight I was listening to a show where many songs were being sung that brought back many wonderful memories. Almost every song they sang was old, and they brought back really good memories.

Then they sang “Cotton Fields (Back Home).” I remembered it immediately, but I was having trouble with the lyrics. Worse, I couldn’t remember the name of the song.

Naturally, I went running for my computer pad and started looking into it. I’m glad I did. The one place I listened to it the most was by Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass. I guess we bought the album around 1974 or 1975.

It was an instrumental, which explains why I had trouble with the words. However, there was an oddity noticed, which I am sure you can verify. This song must be close to holding the record for being the most recorded song ever. I think I came across close to a dozen without trying. I was trying to find a copy of the album we bought back in 1975. I gave up looking. I am sure someone would like to sell me a CD or MP3 copies of the album, but all I could find were cassettes.

Nonetheless, my wife told me of an error in the lyrics. There is no place in Louisiana a mile from Texarkana. I guess we can still pretend. It’s a nice song, anyway.